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It wasn't the flayed horse that Amaterasu-ōmikami was offended by, per se. According to the kojiki (古事記), what happened was that Susano'o flayed a beautiful spotted horse and threw it into a room where Amaterasu's weavers were making clothes. In the ensuing shock and chaos, one of the weaving girls was impaled on a shuttle (through her private parts...) and ...

Tengu (天狗) A lot of my knowledge about them comes from the oral tradition, but the Wiki makes an interesting point that they were originally regarded as demons in the Buddhist context. In the Shinto contexts, they were simply yōkai (妖怪). Tengu are often thought of as a type of forest goblin, and may be benefactors or adversaries, which is typical of ...

The Kojiki of Shinto states the origins of mankind as an action of Izanami-no-Mikoto: Izanami started his cleansing rites and in doing so he created the Goddess of the seas and the Goddess of the moon by washing his left and right eyes. He then created the God of storms out of his nostril and after all this was done he created the first humans. I ...

The Yamata no Orochi (八岐大蛇) is actually ‘the flood myth’ of Japan. The 8 heads of Orochi are actually 8 rivers. Can’t remember the source, will update again if possible.

The Wyandot Indians have an origin myth for sun showers. Then the Thunder spoke again to the young woman and said,  "I have now taken him along with me, and whenever it rains while the sun is shining, the people shall think and say that Tsi-ju'Q-Q, the Wyandot, is making the rain." http://www.wyandot.org/sunshower.htm Snopes has an array of sun shower ...

One belief is that when a kitsune changes shape, its hoshi no tama holds a portion of its magical power. Another tradition is that the pearl represents the kitsune's soul; the kitsune will die if separated from it for long. Those who obtain the ball may be able to extract a promise from the kitsune to help them in exchange for its return This is what the ...

Re: Why "august" It's a function of translation into European languages. It comes from the Latin usage: augustus and was a title employed initially by Octavian, who was deified after his death. I'm not finding anything on Amaterasu referencing mortal beginnings, so we can probably discard the Roman association with deified rulers, and focus on the literal ...

This legend is found in the Kojiki, the oldest "history book" from Japan. The original text makes the reason quite plain: because Izanami is a woman. 告其妹曰「女人先言、不良」 . . . 「因女先言而不良」 He then told his sister, "The woman speaking first is bad" . . . [they copulated anyway and then consulted the gods, who advised:] . . . "It was bad because the woman ...

Amateratsu is traditionnaly the spouse of her very own brother Tsukuyomi. You can check Wikipedia. In case of Inari he was married with Ukemochi and after Tsukuyomi slain her he married Mitama (Uga-no-Mitama). Note also that Inari is vastly renown to have both a male and female form and those spouses are much more the "traditionally in some myths" spouses ...

Not really. Although Shinto rituals involve giving thanks with the implication that giving thanks will bring good things in the future, fate as we generally define it is a novel idea in Japanese culture. There is a Shinto superstition that says if you ask "what if" questions they will come true, but it doesn't attribute this to fate deities. Having said ...

Initially, Susanoo ruled the Takama no Hara (High Celestial Plain) with his sister Amaterasu but from the very beginning, Susanoo caused trouble by destroying forests and mountains and killing local inhabitants down on earth. For this reason he was banished from heaven. ... Full of exuberant joy at having won his challenge with his sister, Susanoo went ...

Amaterasu or Amaterasu-ōmikami is one of the major deities in the animistic Shinto religion of Japan; her full name means “Great Divinity Illuminating Heaven.” One of the world’s few female solar deities, a principal myth featuring Amaterasu depicts her conflict with her brother, Susanoo, god of storms and the sea. Angered with Susanoo because he threw a ...

As you know, the highlight of the ritual is throwing beans at the oni. This specific activity is known as mame (魔滅), meaning "to destroy the demon" (魔を滅する, ma wo mes suru). Alternatively, mame can also be rendered as 魔目, meaning "demon's eyes". So to shoot the demon's eyes is mame wo iru (魔目を射る). The Japanese word for beans is mame (豆), and to roast beans ...

In essence, Shinto states that Kami are elements of the landscape, forces of nature, spirits of the dead, roads, tools, anything really - there are over 300 categories of Kami according to Shinto tradition, and thousands of these have been given names. They can have good and evil qualities. Mount Fuji, for example (Aokihagara is located at the foot of the ...

The article on Wikipedia gives as examples of temples with Kimon facing north-east: Enryaku-ji Kan'ei-ji These temples are deliberately constructed for the Kimon to face the nearby (Capitol) city, their function is to actually keep the Oni out of the city (i.e. build where the Oni would gather outside the city). Cities were built to have their Kimon ...

The Japanese tales are an adoption of Chinese mythology's húli jīng (狐狸精), appearing in a collection of tales from the Warring States, the Shan Hai Jing (山海經). The life span of the creature is only mentioned twice in this huge volume, with conflicting life spans: In the 海外西經 volume: 海外西經: 白民之國在龍魚北，白身被髮。有乘黃，其狀如狐，其背上有角，乘之壽二千歲。 This describes the creature ...

If the fox has a "ball" in it's mouth it is actually the female incarnation of a fox. The male fox incarnation has a parchment or key in his mouth. The "ball" is actually the pill of immortality. The parchment/key is the contract a mortal agrees to with the foxes. Since foxes are shapeshifters, they can appear as female or male. This ...

I don't have sufficient depth of knowledge of Shinto to definitively answer from that perspective, but the virtues (and vices) will surely reflect cultural mores. There may be an element similar to Taoist thought, re: yin/yang, in that nature spirits (unlike Buddhist saints) are unlikely to be entirely "good" or "evil". In the yin/yang symbol, the "eyes of ...